It’s time to face the facts: By any objective standard, the Independent Redistricting Commission has completely botched the job. Governor Brewer and the Senators should exercise their Constitutional duty and replace all of them.
Let’s forget the blatant partisanship and open meeting violations and focus on one issue. The fundamental job of the IRC is to draw districts that fulfil the requirements of the Constitution. The proposed Congressional map clearly violates those requirements.
I’ve printed the full text of the requirements below, but here’s a summary. The first two requirements are right out of federal law: The Districts must comply with the US Constitution and voting rights act and have roughly equal population. Then there are three requirements that were obviously written to prevent Gerrymandering: The Districts have to be geographically compact and contiguous; they have to respect communities of interest and they have to respect natural boundaries.
Then there’s a sixth requirement that uses different wording. Here’s the whole thing.
F. To the extent practicable, competitive districts should be favored where to do so would create no significant detriment to the other goals. (Emphasis added).
Here’s your statutory interpretation question…does the 6th requirement have the same status as the other five, or does it have a lower priority? In the first version of this post, I argued that the 6th requirement was secondary. I still believe that and the lower courts agreed with my interpretation, but (as the first comment to this post pointed out) the state Supreme Court doesn’t like that term. Here’s what the Supreme Court said:
By: Selwyn Duke
When we think of political persecution, places such as Tiananmen Square may come to mind. Increasingly, however, this tool of tyranny is coming to our shores – and it is not made in China. It is, in the case I’ll discuss today, made in Maricopa County.
Every avid news reader knows about the battles between Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the federal government; Leviathan has targeted him because of his principled stand against illegal immigration. What is not quite as well known, however, is that the sheriff and his supporters – most notably, former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas – have long been battling a corrupt local political machine bent on thwarting the rule of law and benefitting itself. Not surprisingly, as in the film Walking Tall, Arpaio’s and Thomas’ attempt to end local corruption has come at a price: the State Bar of Arizona (SBA) has begun prosecuting Thomas and two of his deputies in a move that reeks of political retaliation.
One of these underlings is ex-deputy county attorney Lisa Aubuchon. The other is ex-deputy county attorney Rachel Alexander, whom some readers may recognize as the proprietor of the website Intellectual Conservative. Alexander, despite having played only the smallest of roles in a racketeering case against the Maricopa County Supervisors, now faces suspension of her law license and significant career damage. And outrageously, Alexander’s supervisor, Pete Spaw, has not been charged despite having played a far larger role in the RICO case. This has led many to conclude that Alexander is the victim of selective prosecution.
The problems for Thomas and his deputies started when the County Supervisors filed wrongful prosecution charges against them with the SBA, which their leftist allies in the bar association ran with. What were these local politicians so upset about? John Hawkins at RightWingNews.com provides some background, writing:
Thomas came up with a unique way to prosecute illegal immigrants with a felony, instead of just letting them go with a slap on the wrist. He used a felony smuggling statute to prosecute them, describing them as “smuggling themselves.” With a felony conviction, they would be required to serve time and would not be able to return to the U.S. He even distributed money – which was seized from racketeering funds – to programs for youth run by the Boy Scouts and churches. By law, that money is to be distributed to organizations that keep youth away from crime and drugs. Thomas ensured that it was no longer only distributed to left wing politically correct organizations. Due to the proactive efforts of Thomas, along with Joe Arpaio and Senator Russell Pearce, illegal immigration has greatly decreased in Arizona. The population of illegal immigrants dropped by one-third over two years.
From the political notebook:
- Republicans are claiming that the new congressional map preliminarily adopted by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is designed to improve Democratic prospects. They have a case.
There is, first of all, the circumstantial evidence. All of the major decisions of the commission have been partisan. The two Democratic commissioners have been consistently joined by Chairwoman Colleen Mathis, who has been independent in name only. As a mapping consultant, they chose not an independent demographer but a Democratic campaign consultant.
And then there is the map itself.
Right now, Paul Gosar is the Republican’s most vulnerable incumbent. He’s in a rural district anchored in northeast Arizona that has a Democratic registration advantage of 3.8 percent. Under the commission’s map, the Democratic advantage swells to 9.5 percent.
The Democrat’s most vulnerable incumbent is Gabrielle Giffords. She’s in a southern Arizona district that has a Republican registration advantage of 4.8 percent. Under the commission’s map, that shrinks to a tenth of a percent.
Last week a secret meeting of the world’s nine economic super powers met in San Francisco. The meetings discussed the current policies of each nation and their plans for the future in the wake of the Global Turn-Off. (In California that means Recession, “the Big R word,” Got it, Dude? Wow!!!)
As one of the planned closing events of the meeting, the nine leaders met at North Beach. The event: The Economic Leaders Swim to Alcatraz. It was a nice sunny day for San Francisco, about 65 degrees. Mark Twain said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” In San Francisco, 65 degrees is considered a heat wave. What could they possibly know about Global Warming?
Shill moderates forum scheduled to preclude working people
Arizona State Senate President Russell Pearce (R-Dist.18) and his recruited challenger Jerry Lewis are scheduled to debate October 6 at a public forum presented by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce. The Valley Chambers are notorious for promoting an easily exploitable, low-wage illicit workforce favored by illegal alien profiteers.
With a 5:00 p.m. start time, the audience will likely be stacked with imported attendees who don’t have to work for a living.
Although tickets are required for admission, they are available at no charge. The event will be held at the Jack E. Shell Auditorium of the East Valley Institute of Technology 1601 W. Main Street, Mesa. Approximately 500 tickets will be available on a first-come, first-served basis with priority given to LD 18 voters. Ticket requests can be made via email at forum@mesachamber.org or phone at (480) 969-1307, Ext. 16.
A public broadcast and webcast of the forum will be made available via the Tribune at EastValleyTribune.com.
Sen. Russell Pearce, a patriot who has devoted his life to public service, was the architect of the nationally copied SB 1070. He is the subject of a recall being instigated by the open borders/amnesty crowd. Jerry Lewis is a recruited candidate, not unlike sham candidate Kevin Gibbons, Jeff Flake’s recruited immigration lawyer brother-in-law, who lost his challenge to then-Rep. Pearce during the 2008 election.
The not difficult to miss facts of this event are that the forum is scheduled at a time when working people will not be able to attend and the moderator is named Shill.
Hat tip: Seeing Red AZ| Read Comments
A m e r i c a n P o s t – G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Arizona Republic editorializes against corrupt Supervisors Stapley and Wilcox
Supervisors put on so much fake weeping during Bar prosecution of Andrew Thomas wanting their million dollar lawsuits against county taxpayers that even liberal Republic wasn’t fooled
Reprinted from SeeingRedAZ.com
“Must even sober, somber hearings convened by the Arizona Supreme Court dissolve into weepy productions from the Oprah Winfrey Network?….Stapley and Wilcox are using these proceedings to maximize their cases for winning damages from the county. Their testimony is a distraction from the specific accusation that Thomas abused his license to practice law.”
High drama in the high court
September 22, 2011
It’s a rare day when we agree – even in part – with an editorial in the Morning Endeavor.
In the high-stakes job to redraw Arizona’s political districts, much has been debated about the idea of “transparency.”
The Independent Redistricting Commission, apparently concerned about the public perception of its decision to hire a mapping firm with historic ties to Democratic causes, recently established a rule intended to allay fears of partisanship driving the mapping process.
The five-member panel last month voted to require tracking of all contact between the group’s mapping firm, Strategic Telemetry, and anyone outside the commission. The rule was initiated by Republican Commissioner Scott Freeman and crafted by the panel’s attorneys.
But what about the commission itself? Shouldn’t its members be held to the same standard?
By ColdWarrior
Original post: http://goo.gl/LI1ht
I live in a city that borders Phoenix, Arizona. Yesterday was the last day to cast a vote in the Phoenix city government election, in which those city residents who bothered to register to vote could cast a vote for their next mayor, for their city council representative, and for two ballot initiatives. (Only about 5/8 of the residents, though, got to vote for a city council representative, as only half of the eight slots are voted upon every two years. As one of the mayoral candidates had stepped down from one of the council seats not up for election this year, that district also had an election.)
The Phoenix city government currently grapples with many problems, including bloated government bureaucracies, public employee pension funding shortfalls, etc. And things are so bad, that a whopping 15% of those registered to vote bothered to cast a ballot for their elected city representatives. Unfortunately, the “tea party” candidate for Phoenix
PHOTOS BY DEAN KNUTH / ARIZONA DAILY STAR John Stollar Jr., chief of programs and policy for the Arizona Department of Education, testifies for the state. Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal, left, presides over the hearing, in which TUSD defended its Mexican American Studies program.
PHOENIX – TUSD Governing Board President Mark Stegeman and member Michael Hicks gave potentially damaging testimony in the district’s fight to defend its Mexican American Studies program Friday.
The testimony came on the first day of an administrative appeal hearing in Phoenix. Both were witnesses for the Arizona Department of Education, which contends that the Tucson Unified School District program is in violation of state law, putting it at risk of losing nearly $15 million in state funding should it be found out of compliance.
The law prohibits courses that promote resentment towards a race or class of people; are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic race; advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals; and promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.
While TUSD maintains that it is in compliance, Hicks testified the program violates the law. He later said he believes certain teachers are indoctrinating children, not educating them.
Stegeman, however, was emotional while testifying about a classroom visit in which he described behavior that he said aligned with a book on cult psychology, “The True Believer” by Eric Hoffer. It discusses the crucial elements of mass movements, which include glorifying the past and devaluing the present, the ability to foster hatred indirectly and using doctrine to substitute for fact.
Gust Opinion, Raza studies give rise to racial hostility
John Ward on May 21, 2008
As a former teacher in Tucson Unified School District’s hotly debated ethnic studies department, I submit my perspective for the public’s consideration.
During the 2002-2003 school year, I taught a U.S. history course with a Mexican-American perspective. The course was part of the Raza/Chicano studies department.
Within one week of the course beginning, I was told that I was a “teacher of record,” meaning that I was expected only to assign grades. The Raza studies department staff would teach the class.
In a way, it is helpful that Democratic state Sen. Steve Gallardo and other Hispanic leaders have raised, once again, the entirely mythical belief that Arizona Sen. John McCain had no factual evidence for raising concerns about illegal immigrants causing wildfires near the Mexican border.
It is helpful to set the record straight. The senator was justified in observing that fact because, simply, it is a fact.
Shortly after touring the devastating Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona on June 18, McCain was asked by a journalist: “How do you fix this (from happening again)?”
In response, McCain said: “Well, first of all, we are concerned about, particularly, areas down on the border, where there is substantial evidence that some of these fires are caused by people who have crossed our border illegally.”
